1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle sliding door opening and closing apparatus which enables the opening and closing of a sliding door based on the control of a door opening and closing control unit.
2. Description of the Related Art
A related vehicle sliding door opening and closing apparatus is configured such that a door opening and closing drive unit is caused to operate based on an opening operation instructed by a door opening and closing control switch so as to move the sliding door in an opening direction, and when the sliding door reaches a fully opened position, a full-opening latch unit provided on the sliding door is brought into engagement with a full-opening striker on the side of a vehicle body, whereby the sliding door is held at the fully-opened position, while, when the sliding door is hold at the fully-opened position, a drive unit having an electric motor is caused to operate so as to unfasten a latch of the full-opening latch unit before the door opening and closing drive unit is caused to operate based on a closing operation instructed by the door opening and closing control switch, and thereafter, the sliding door is caused to move in a closing direction (refer, for example, to JP-A-2002-276227).
In addition, there have been proposed various types of half-opening stopping devices for stopping the sliding door at a predetermined half-opened position when the sliding door has reached the half-opened position in the event that a window glass provided in the sliding door in such a manner as to be opened and closed is in an opened state in order to avoid a risk that an object is trapped between part of a window opening and part of a door opening (refer, for example, to JP-UM-A-61-152682). In these half-opening stopping devices, when a window glass detecting sensor for detecting the opening and closing of the window glass detects that the window glass has been opened, a stopper member is caused to project into a moving locus of the sliding door by a drive unit (a solenoid) provided on the side of a vehicle body, whereby when the sliding door is opened to the predetermined half-opened position, the sliding door is brought into abutment with the stopper member so as to stop the sliding door at the half-opened position.
When the half-opening stopping device is applied to the door opening and closing apparatus, however, two drive units, one for unfastening the latch of the full-opening latch unit and the other for enabling the sliding door to be stopped at the half-opened position when the window glass is opened, are necessary, and therefore, since an increase in cost is called for, this is not economical.